If you are going to be teaching at the post-secondary level, there are no issues; you obviously just have to have the credentials and pass through the steps of the hiring process to get a job.

The short answer for K-12 teaching is: No – teaching certification transfer does not directly transfer from the US to Canada.

Now the answer is not as simple as yes or no, really. Certification issues are trickier if you are going to teach in a public school from K-12 than they are working at the post-secondary level. The good news is that it’s unlikely that one would have to take his/her whole teaching degree over if (s)he had one from a fully accredited college and was certified within his/her home state. The bad news is one would probably have to take some courses over to be certified where they are going to teach. Education is the perogative of each of the separate provinces within Canada. (There are historical reasons for this – you really don’t want the details.)

The upshot of this is when someone graduates with a teaching degree in one part of our country and moves to another part of the country, that province’s Department of Education FREQUENTLY deems some part of the teacher’s training credentials as insufficient and requires it to be upgraded. (It’s a turf warfare thing.)

It’s unlikely that one would sneak in under the radar. Dependent upon which province one moves to, things might be different getting a job in a private school rather than in the public system. In my province (Manitoba) all teachers are required to be fully credentialed, whether in the public or private system.

There tends to be a grace period within which you can hold a job and get the required coursework done. Once you have landed a job or if you already know what part of the country you are moving to, you should contact that province’s department of education for details about certification. (You will need to send them a copy of your university transcripts and your certification papers to have official word AND receive the written documentation of what they are requiring you to do.) Don’t leave this to chance, relying on someone else’s experience; what you personally will be required to do may shift in comparison with someone in a parrallel situation. Remember: It’s a turf warfare thing.